Oliver Schmidt, who was in charge of Volkswagen’s U.S. environmental and engineering office before the company’s emissions testing scandal, was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison. Schmidt had pleaded guilty to violating clean air laws and to defrauding the U.S. government earlier this year for his part in the scandal where VW used hidden software to hide that many of its cars weren’t meeting emissions standards.
He also was fined $400,000. The sentence and fine are the maximum penalties for the charges.
Schmidt is the second VW employee to be sentenced in the United States for his role in the VW emissions scandal.
Six additional executives have been charged in the U.S. over their involvement in the VW scandal. The company pleaded guilty in March as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with federal regulators. As part of the plea, VW agreed to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine. In January 2017, VW had agreed to plead guilty to resolve the criminal charges.
In September 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to Volkswagen, alleging that four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009-2015 include software that circumvents EPA emissions standards.
The cars are equipped with a “defeat device,” software that switches to cleaner emissions when the vehicles are hooked up to official emission testing equipment.
